Asphodelus is a genus of mainly perennial plants native to western, central and southern Europe, but now spread worldwide. Asphodels are popular garden plants, which grow in well-drained soils with abundant natural light. Now placed in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae,[1] like many lilioid monocots, the genus was formerly placed in the lily family (Liliaceae).

Character

The plants are hardy herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow flowers. Asphodelus albus and A. fistulosus have white flowers and grow from 1½ to 2 ft. high; A. ramosus is a larger plant, the large white flowers of which have a reddish-brown line in the middle of each segment.

The leaves are used to wrap burrata, an Italian cheese. The leaves and the cheese last about the same time, three or four days, and thus fresh leaves are a sign of a fresh cheese, while dried out leaves indicate that the cheese is past its prime.[citation needed]In Sardinia, honey produced from bees who have fed on the plant is highly favored for its delicate taste.[2] In Puglia, the unopened buds of the plant are collected, blanched in boiling water and preserved in olive-oil. This is used as a condiment.[2] In some areas of Sardinia, especially Tinnura and Flussio, the stems are used to weave baskets used in bread-making. At one time, these were an indispensable part of the trousseau of a bride-to-be.[2]

Mythology

In Greek legend the asphodel is one of the most famous of the plants connected with the dead and the underworld. Homer describes it as covering the great meadow (ἀσφόδελος λειμών), the haunt of the dead. It was planted on graves, and is often connected with Persephone, who appears crowned with a garland of asphodels. Its general connection with death is due no doubt to the greyish colour of its leaves and its yellowish flowers, which suggest the gloom of the underworld and the pallor of death. The roots were eaten by the poorer Greeks; hence such food was thought good enough for the shades. The asphodel was also supposed to be a remedy for poisonous snake-bites and a specific against sorcery; it was fatal to mice, but preserved pigs from disease. The Libyan nomads made their huts of asphodel stalks.

Etymology

The word is a loanword from Greek. Its original version is "ἀσφόδελος".[3]

Species

According to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, as of June 2011, there are 17 species in the genus:[4]

The Asphodel Meadows is a section of the Ancient Greek underworld where indifferent and ordinary souls were sent to live after death.

Geography

The Asphodel Meadows is where the souls of people who lived lives of near equal good and evil rested. It essentially was a plain of Asphodel flowers, which were the favorite food of the Greek dead. It is described as a ghostly place that is an even less perfect version of life on earth[citation needed].

Some depictions describe it as a land of utter neutrality. That is, while the people are neither good nor evil, so are their lives treated, as they mechanically perform their daily tasks. Other depictions have also stated that all residents drink from the river Lethe before entering the fields, thus losing their identities and becoming something similar to a machine. This somewhat negative outlook on the afterlife for those who make little impact was probably passed down to encourage militarism in Greek cultures as opposed to inaction. In fact, those who did take up arms were believed to be rewarded with everlasting joy in the fields of Elysium.

Sources

The Oxford English Dictionary gives Homer as the source for the English poetic tradition of describing the Elysian meadows as being covered in asphodel. In the translation by W. H. D. Rouse, the passage in question (from The Odyssey, Book X) is rendered "the ghost of clean-heeled Achilles marched away with long steps over the meadow of asphodel." In Book XXV in the same translation, the souls of the dead "came to the Meadow of Asphodel where abide the souls and phantoms of those whose work is done."[1] Homer describes the experience of the dead souls and relates the meadow to its surroundings in these books and in Circe's brief description at the end of Book X. Edith Hamilton suggests that the asphodel of these fields are not exactly like the asphodel of our world but are "presumably strange, pallid, ghostly flowers."[2]

References

^ W.H.D. Rouse, trans. The Odyssey: The Story of Odysseus. New York: The New American Library, 1949. ^ Edith Hamilton. Mythology. New York: Warner Books, 1999. Ch. 1, p. 40.